Do black holes hold the secret to the origin of galaxies? A new research says a new type of black hole can shed light on how galaxies are formed.

An Intermediate Mass Black Hole, a newly discovered type of black hole, may aid scientist in unlocking the mystery behind the origin of the galaxy according to a research team from the Sydney Institute for Astronomy at the University of Sydney.

"Intermediate Mass Black Holes are a crucial missing link between stellar mass and supermassive black holes, and may turn out to be the building blocks of the supermassive black holes found in the centres of galaxies. Our own Milky Way galaxy may be filled with them," says Dr. Sean Farrell, lead author of the research.

Back in 2009, a team led by Dr Farrell, discovered the first Intermediate Mass Black Hole, called HLX-1, and published their findings in the prestigious journal Nature. The new research will be published in the USA's Astrophysical Journal.

The most recent paper details how Dr Farrell's team has detected the presence of a very young massive cluster of stars around HLX-1.

"Our latest finding is that we've detected evidence for a very young massive cluster of stars around the HLX-1 black hole,” said Dr Farrell.

“The fact that it's a very young cluster of stars indicates that our Intermediate Mass Black Hole may have originated as the central black hole in a very low mass dwarf galaxy, that has been swallowed by the massive galaxy that it now resides in.”

"This has really important implications for how supermassive black holes form, and therefore how galaxies form and evolve.

"Before this we had very strong evidence for the existence of Intermediate Mass Black Holes, but we weren't sure where they were formed. Now we may be able to understand where they come from," said Dr Farrell.